Rachel Stone | Nonfiction Book Editor

Nonfiction Book Editor Specializing in Memoirs, Self-Help, Business Books, Religious Books, and Textbooks.

Developmental Editing, Copyediting, Proofreading, Rewriting

Educational publishing industry editor, manager, director, executive and now independent contractor with over thirty-five years experience developing college and high school textbooks. Editor extraordinaire with a passion for the written (and edited) word. Highly regarded, excellent, engaged, hands-on, hands-off, yet strong collaborative editor who knows the difference between editing and writing and will make your book better in your own words. Can edit in all genres, but specializes in memoirs, self-help, business books, religious books, and textbooks.

What Is My Experience? What Titles Have I Worked On?

The list of titles that I have worked on includes:

Together, We Knock Out Pain by Dr. Winifred Bragg
Marketing Implant Dentistry by Marcus Hines
The Physics of Success, 2^nd Edition by Michael Ciarochi
Fearless Passion byYong Kang Chan
34 Golden Nuggets to Business Success by Matts Rehnstrom
The CAP Equation by Joe Buzzello
The Ripple Effect by Shaun Gibson
In Reflection in Nature by John Brogan
SuperSize Me byLinda Zander
How to Create a Happy Business by Carol Merlo
Zoonauts by Richard Mueller
Man Laws Revealed by Darrell Roberts
Keeping Youth Alive by Tim Tweedy
Heaven’s Consciousness by Rhonda Nell Dooley (IP)
Interstate: Confessions of a Rookie Truck Driver by Doug Sanderson
Dating After Trauma by Emily Avagliano
I Love You. . .Good-bye by Taylor Sterling
Why Employees Are Always a Bad Idea by Chuck Blakeman
Active Career Management by Robert Wilson
Cows in the Pews and Atheists, Too by George S. Jupiter
Yea, Alabama! by David Battles
Southerland Skye by Katherine Van Kuren

Books Edited for Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Dashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery
Effective Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations by Lorilee Lipincott
The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Clients by Ellen Shapiro
The Homeschooling Handbook: How to Make Homeschooling Simple, Affordable, and Fun
The Ultimate Sports Fan Cookbook
The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting
Cancer and Hormone Risks
CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys by Patrick Nolan
Facing Ted Williams
The Mackinaw Incident
Made with Dad
Employees Gone Mad

Career Highlights

AMSCO School Publications, Inc., Director of Science Publications
IDG Books | Editorial Manager (60-80 titles per year)
AVSC International | Technical Medical Writer/Editor
John Wiley & Sons, College Division | Senior Development Editor (3-6 titles per year)
Macmillan Publishers, College Division | Assistant Vice-President—Development (8-10 titles per year)
Senior Development Editor | Warren Gorham & Lamont
Prentice-Hall College Division | Development Editor

Editing Services: What Do I Do?

My skills include global reorganization as needed, heavy developmental editing, rewriting, copyediting, and proofreading. I excel at transforming manuscripts into accessible, engaging material for their intended audience.

I edit for clarity and comprehension, taking into account macro as well as micro editing, the big picture as well as the small.

Book Editor Reviews

“It was a fortuitous pleasure to engage Rachel as my editor for my nonfiction book. I was looking for someone who had a feel for my genre. Rachel delivered in spades. She gave me great feedback for a terrific price. She provided me with terrific suggestions and was very timely. You will be pleased.” – Carol Merlo, January 17, 2015, How to Create a Happy Business

“To my editor, we share a similar sense of humor and of life. I chose her out of hundreds, thus confirming one of the most important lessons I teach in this book, to always believe in your intuition. Your collaboration helped bring this incredibly life–changing and relevant book to fruition.” Taylor Sterling, author, I Love You . . . Goodbye

“It’s a book! It has been a pleasure and an incredible learning experience. You made me think, you gave me pause in a number of areas, and if it weren’t for your insight and honesty, my manuscript would have never achieved the polish I think it has now.” – Steve M. (aka George S. Jupiter, author of upcoming book about religion, Cows in the Pews, and Atheists, Too)

“Rachel helped me smooth out many grammatical rough corners without breaking the bank, and suggested some minor changes that she felt might improve the book. I never felt like I was being directed on how to re-write my story. Rachel was able to make all her edits inside Microsoft Word, which was the way I preferred. Her final submission included one MS Word file showing the individual edits, and another file with all the edits incorporated. This second file saved me a lot of time.” – Doug Sanderson, Author

“I am so deeply appreciative to my editor, Rachel Stone. Her hard work and patience, her insightful and thoughtful recommendations and corrections, especially to my comma-challenged writing, helped to clarify and elevate my writing to a higher level.” – From the Acknowledgement Section of You Were Here Before, Why Are You Here Now?: Experiences of a Past Life Regression Therapist by Barbara Pisick (December 2015)

“I gratefully acknowledge my professional editor, Rachel Stone, who made a book out of my manuscript. She provided invaluable advice and comments on making medical jargon understandable to the lay reader.” – From the Acknowledgement section of It Was Worth the Trip, by Dr. Gerry Burke)

“I was looking for an editor to help me working on my book. Rachel was introduced to me and I saw recommendations also from others that I know. I contacted her and she came back to me promptly with clear suggestions of the work to be done. I am very satisfied with the speed of work and the result that she provided. I find the price competitive. We communicated only through email which worked fine.” – Matts Rehnstrom, 1/30/15, 34 Golden Nuggets to Business Success

“I am loving it! It’s odd to say this in the right way, but your editing seems to have made it more-so my voice, not less-so. You have moved words around in a way I had attempted but did not know how. Also, better flow of the manuscript has allowed me to add a little more content in certain spots where it would have been awkward before.” – John Brogan (personal communication author, On Reflection In Nature, July 24, 2015 Published on Amazon)

“Rachel Stone is a fantastic editor. Not only is she terrific with words, she is a true professional and easy to work with. She is also very good at editing a book in a manner that will match your style of writing. When she edits, she makes changes to improve the reader’s ability to understand what you are trying to communicate. When she is finished editing, you will feel like it is your work–only better! I know she dramatically increased the readability of my book.

“I was recently referred to Rachel and I’m so glad that I was. As I walked down the road leading to my first work of nonfiction I needed somebody to hold my hand and help me bring the written content into a cogent, readable package. Rachel navigated through my manuscript like a surgeon, dissecting a too-long chapter or two, while also gently letting me know what text rocked and what absolutely didn’t move the book forward. Rachel was a blessing to us as we entered this final phase of book development. I plan to use her again, (when I recover from this book) and I would recommend her highly!” – Joe Buzzell, president, The Buzzello Group, Inc. Author, Creator, The CAP Equation, Nov 13, 2014

“I have gotten rave reviews on Amazon and Rachel helped with that. She even wrote a kind review of my book which I greatly appreciated. I really felt she was going out of her way to make sure I had a successful book launch which was great because this is my first book. She really filled me with confidence in moving forward with this deeply personal book– it is a memoir of how I healed myself from sexual trauma and found the love of my life. Her support helped me get over my fear and launch the book. Thanks again. I really appreciate it.” – Emily Avagliano, author, Dating After Trauma

“I was incredibly satisfied with the work completed by Rachel. Her response to my request was incredibly fast, her edits (both grammar and developmental) were very thoughtful, and her communication was very clear. Pricing was extremely fair and I was very satisfied with the quality of the final product. I would definitely use Rachel on future projects and would highly recommend her to others.” Author, Active Career Management (IP)

“It was a fortuitous pleasure to engage Rachel as my editor for my nonfiction book. I was looking for someone who had a feel for my genre. Rachel delivered in spades. She provided me with terrific suggestions and was very timely. I highly recommend her. You will be pleased.” -Carol Merlo, January 17, 2015, How to Create a Happy Business

“It’s a book! It has been a pleasure and an incredible learning experience. You made me think, you gave me pause in a number of areas, and if it weren’t for your insight and honesty, my manuscript would have never achieved the polish I think it has now.”-Steve M. (aka George S. Jupiter, author of upcoming book about religion, Cows in the Pews, and Atheists, Too)

“Please know this is the first time in 3 years I have seen my book in its entirety including, no ‘conversion’ issues. The ms is AMAZING! It looks clean and well put together with many great additions and rewrites which allow the words to flow with ease and grace. You have brought my manuscript to the next level allowing me to comfortably present this gift to the world. I have to admit that the first renderings of the booklets were a little rough, I was at first wondering where the magic was. This new version (pdf & word docx) is just as amazing as the ms. You certainly took your time and put your magic touch on each of the four booklets; again, bringing them to the next level. Well done. I truly am grateful for all your time and effort. I know that I can be tough to deal with; I have high expectations and I expect the best from myself and others. Although in most cases when I hire out a professional service of any sort and a final price is made; that’s what I expect things to be. However; I will say that this whole project has been challenging in a few ways. With that said; I feel that you should be compensated for your hard work and the magic you put into the latest versions of the book and booklets.” – Warmest Regards (Personal communication from author, July 2015)

“Rachel was quick and efficient in answering my questions and working with me within my budget. It was clear throughout our email exchanges that her goal was my satisfaction with her work and helping me to make my book the best it could be.” – Raye Wood, Arden Iva-Gene Books

“The readability of the manuscript is soooooo much better. For that I thank you. In the past, reading the manuscript over and over was burdensome. I feel a breath of fresh air reading the edited version.” – Ed (personal communication from author, August 2015)

“As I indicated at a recent meeting with the editorial directors, your skilled, professional leadership has produced a blossoming of the Science Department and its product line. Congratulations!” – Henry Brun, President, Amsco School Publications, Inc.

“Rachel was very professional to work with and had a great eye for what the book needed before it could be published. Her editing skills allow you to focus on writing content, not on becoming an editor; she takes it to the next level. Rachel’s editing was accompanied by an extremely helpful list of suggestions and recommendations for improving the book, along with a simple task list for all the detailed things a writer doesn’t always pay attention to – alerting you to partial footnotes, the need for titles and headers, suggestions for callouts, etc. Best of all, Rachel understands the writer’s voice and was able to do thorough content and proof editing while keeping the author’s voice intact. She’s great!” – Chuck Blakeman, author, Why Employees Are Always A Bad Idea

“As a development editor, Rachel is tirelessly conscientious. She is a rational perfectionist. Her analyses of the competing text books are exhaustive, and she uses them not only as models for shaping the book under her care, but as foundations for achieving new standards of excellence. Knowing how other authors have treated a subject, Rachel is able to direct the authors with whom she works in the creation of superior treatments. Her long experience gives her a keen discriminating eye when it comes to evaluating professional reviews, and the advice she gives her authors is always firmly supported and clearly expressed.” – D. Anthony English, Editor-in-Chief, Social Sciences and Humanities, MacMillan College Publishing Company, Inc.

“Rachel offered extremely productive feedback and turned a personal labor of love into something special that I can share with the world. She was readily available to me and she delivered my final edit a week early. I look forward to working with her again.” Tim Tweedy

“You will recall that the person initially assigned to handle the developmental editing of our book concluded that the book was essentially in great shape and needed little rewriting. She actually ‘edited’ one of my chapters, changing a word here, adding a comma there. When Rachel assumed the developmental editing duties, the situation changed radically. Indeed, all of us were a bit taken aback by the heavy editing that Rachel was doing on the chapters. But after getting over the shock that someone might actually find fault with our apparently flawless prose, we began to recognize the value of her work. Roy, Jack, and I are all in agreement that her line-by-line labor produced the most significant changes in the manuscript between its second and third drafts. She improved the clarity of our expression, enhanced the logic of our organization, ensured consistency of content across chapters, and in general, rendered the entire manuscript into better English. We are well aware that the book is far better because of her Herculean efforts.” – Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. Author, Psychology [college textbook]

“I am very pleased to announce the promotion of Rachel Stone to Senior Development Editor. Since joining MacMillan’s College Division, Rachel has lent her considerable skills to developing such texts as Benjamin et al.: Psychology; Wistreich: Microbiology 5/e; Petrucci: General Chemistry, 5/e; and Hamblin: The Earth’s Dynamic Systems, 5/e. Next year, you can look for Rachel’s magic touch in Evans & Berman: Marketing, 4/e and Hamblin: Essentials of Geology. Please join me in congratulating Rachel on her well-earned promotion.” – Johnna Barto, Executive Editor, College Division, Macmillan College Publishing Company, Inc.

“Rachel did an outstanding job editing my book Man Laws Revealed. I received more service than I expected in a timely manner. Exceeding customer expectations is always a great thing.” Darrell Roberts

“Rachel Stone is an excellent writer and editor. She brought clarity and thoroughly enhanced my Book with her exceptional insight improving the flow and making it an easy read. Rachel responded with ease in a timely fashion to complicated developments. She ironed out the wrinkles and organized my writings so well that two other professional editors gave good comments. One said, “The manuscript has good content and is well organized.” The second one said, “I enjoyed your engaging style of writing.” I am certain that without Rachel Stone, my efforts would have been only, good intentions. She is easy to work with, very encouraging and professional, truly, a God send.” Author: Heaven’s Consciousness